AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

let’s wait to go up to my office before we talk.”
    Feore led them to the bank of elevators, careful to keep a gap for Munroe to walk comfortably between them.
    I don’t think he’s as charming as Linda thinks he is, but I got to admit he has good disembodied etiquette, Munroe thought. Must be all the dead people he probably works with.
    The elevator stopped on the 27th floor. Feore had a corner office with windows facing northwest and a beautiful view of the Front Range.
    He closed the door, then went behind his desk, said, “Take a seat,” and sat. He took his terminal out of his coat pocket and plugged it into a dock on the desk.
    “Alex, we can hear you on the speakers.” He took off his ear buds and nodded to her, and she took off hers.
    “Bob, I’m sorry I asked Linda to call you,” Munroe said, “but we don’t have much time.”
    Feore looked at her. “You said something about lives being at stake. What was that about?”
    She and Munroe spent five minutes telling him about their initial missing persons reports, their investigation of the rave and their trip to Colorado Springs.
    “That’s the craziest … trapping people with plywood and moving walls? It’s like the garbage compactor scene in Star Wars . But what do they gain? You can’t hurt … is it even a crime?”
    She sat forward in her chair. “I don’t think it matters if it is. It’s still wrong. Can you help us?”
    “How? It sounds like you might already know when and where the next … kidnapping might be.”
    Munroe said, “We need more proof than an email to justify … look, you must have heard about the Williams shooting?”
    “What Williams shooting?”
    They explained to him about the shooting and their new role in the department.
    “Sorry, first we had problems with the network Christmas Day, then the tsunami.”
    “What’s that got to do with you?” she asked.
    “Relief efforts,” Munroe answered for him.
    “That’s right. Soon as we found out, we started sending as many portable terminals as we could find to send to Buckley Air Force Base. Including a couple of prototypes of the new terminals you predicted in your blog. From there, the military got them to Guam and then out where needed. So I really haven’t paid any attention to anything except the tsunami. Today’s the first day I’ve been able to breathe. Then you two make trouble for me.”
    “Well, at Rybold’s party, you mentioned this new search engine technology,” Munroe said.
    “Yeah,” he said, making a face and rubbing the back of his neck. “I was really full of myself that day. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s something that really should have been covered by a confidentiality agreement. If you went public right now …”
    “We were never really going to do that,” she said.
    “I’m … we’re willing to sign one,” Munroe said. Feore looked up. “If we could use it today,” Munroe added. “The department’s Internet connection is too slow and the terminal’s ancient. We need a lot more evidence fast. If this search engine is what you said …”
    Feore drew back, his body language making it clear he wasn’t likely to agree.
    “Help me Obi-wan, you’re my only hope,” Yamaguchi said. Munroe was surprised. She didn’t often make movie references, but she had judged its effect on Feore quite accurately.
    “OK … let me make a call.” Feore said. “She’s quite a piece of work.”
    “Sly move with the Star Wars reference, Linda,” Munroe said.
    “I can still hear you, Alex,” Feore said.
    “Damn,” Munroe said. “I got to stop doing …” Feore held up a finger to silence him as he talked to someone on the phone.
    Munroe and Yamaguchi looked at each other. They were used to being able to talk privately at times like these.
    “It’s OK,” Feore said. “They’re quiet in the lab because of the holiday and Shel’s there so she can operate the chamber.”
    “Chamber?” she asked.
    He smiled. “Follow me. I’ll explain on the way.”
    He retrieved his terminal and put on his ear buds. She did the same and then he led them out of his office and toward the elevators.
    “Lab’s two floors down.”
    “Bob, I thought you told me about a search engine, not a … chamber.”
    “It is a search engine … sort of. And it’s a whole lot more,” he said, saying the last in a salesman’s pitch. The elevator doors opened and they got in. Another person was in the elevator and Feore stopped talking.